Excavation digs up artifacts in ancient temple

An excavation team from the Vietnam Institute of Archaeology and Bac Giang province Museum discovered valuable artifacts after a month-long excavation in the remnants of Ma Yen pagoda (Photo: baobacgiang.com.vn)

Bac Giang (VNA) - An excavation team from the Vietnam
Institute of Archaeology and the Bac Giang provincial Museum has discovered valuable
artifacts after a month-long excavation in the remnants of Ma Yen pagoda.

These artifacts will
serve as important evidence about the presence of an important Buddhist
architectural structure hundreds of years ago.

Ma Yen pagoda is located
in the northern province of Bac Lung commune, Luc Nam district of the northern
province of Bac Giang.

Ma Yen is also the name of a mountain, shaped like a
horse’s saddle. This region has some ancient sites, including Hinh Nhan
Mountain (which looks like a human being standing) or the Elephant Mountain,
and is surrounded by the endless pine forest.

Doctor Trinh Hoang Hiep
from the Vietnam Institute of Archaeology, leader of the excavation team, said,
“Each artifact found has special value. It helps to clarify the relationship
between the relic and other structures of Truc Lam Zen in the past. The search
and evacuation has been done in a cautious and meticulous manner. Artifacts
found were carefully classified so that we could identify the number of
construction materials used in a specific period of time in an architectural
structure. Artifacts were cleaned, recorded, reported and sent to the
province’s museum.”

Construction materials
and daily items made of ceramics from different periods of time, in which the
earliest was during the Tran dynasty (the 13th-14th century), were found.

“Early this year, we
also held an evacuation session but didn’t expect much because the pagoda had
been damaged by locals searching for antiques. But this time, the result was beyond
our expectation,” said Hiep.

Vu Thi Sang, a native of
Xuan Phu village, Bac Lung commune, said, “About 10 years ago, when locals
passed by this area, they found artifacts and antiques under layers of falling
leaves. People then came to search for antiques and some thought there might
have been valuable gold or silver items here; therefore, they brought metal
seeking devices, digging back and forth to search for valuable items. This
relic, therefore, was seriously damaged.”

With a total excavation
area of 200sq metres, the archaeologists discovered different architectural
parts of the pagoda, which included the foundation, remnants of the main
ceremonial hall, which included the staircases, gates, decorative tiles, bowls,
plates and stone mortar.

Besides, an ancient well
and the foundation of other large-scale structures were found scattered in an
area covering thousands of square metres. The excavation team said this could
have been the accommodation of monks, the kitchen and the pre-ceremonial hall.

According to historical
documents, Ma Yen was built from the Ly-Tran dynasty (12th-13th century), yet
till now, there is still not enough archaeological evidence to affirm that the
structure was built as early as during the Ly dynasty (the 11th).

With construction
materials and decorative patterns discovered, it can be identified that the
structure appeared during three periods of time, which included the Tran
dynasty (13th-14th century) with the discovery of the lotus petal-shaped stone
base (used as a pedestal for the pillar in a building), the Le Trung Hung
dynasty (the 17th-18th century) and the Nguyen dynasty (19th century).

A common thing among
pagodas during the Tran dynasty is that their rear is protected by the
mountain, facing a big stream, and as such, their location was often in a
remote high mountain peak and away from the residential area.

The foundation for this
statement is that the pagoda used wood to build the surrounding wall. During
the excavation, there was no sign of brick found. It is very likely that people
used wood from the forest to build the surrounding wall. With heavy, big tiles
found, it can be inferred that the pressure capacity of architectural items,
like pillars, is quite strong. The structure used two types of stone, one
available in the area and used for the foundation and the other is sandstone
from other localities used as the pedestal for pillars.

The excavation team
hopes to discover decorative items shaped like the bodhi leave, dragon or
phoenix’s head, which were very popular in pagodas during the Tran dynasty.

With the artifacts found
and reference to historical documents, Ma Yen is considered as one of the great
heritage relics, and to have a connection with and be influenced by Truc Lam
Zen from the Tran Dynasty, according to archaeologists.

Ma Yen lies to the west
to the Yen Tu Mountain region, which was the founding place of Truc Lam Zen.

Yen Tu Mount, located
more than 1,000 metres above sea level, was found by King Tran Nhan Tong. After
successfully leading the Tran dynasty to its final victories over two Mongol
invasions, King Tran Nhan Tong gave the throne to his son and went to Yen Tu in
1299 to create the Truc Lam Buddhism Zen Sect, which had a significant impact
on the development of Vietnamese Buddhism. -VNA